Nation and the United States of America at the 1912 Olympic
Games in Stockholm, Sweden; and
WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was the first United States athlete to
win the pentathlon and the decathlon in one Olympic year; and
WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe's athletic feats and the worldwide
publicity established the viability of the modern Olympic Games;
and
WHEREAS, To honor his gold medals in the pentathlon and
decathlon, Jim Thorpe received gifts from King Gustaf V of
Sweden and Czar Nicholas II of Russia; and
WHEREAS, A ticker-tape parade was held in New York City upon
Jim Thorpe's return to the United States from Sweden; and
WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals were revoked after he
was found to have violated strict rules regarding amateurism in
force at the time; and
WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe's medals were not reinstated until 1982,
30 years after his death, when the International Olympic
Committee recognized the improper application of the
disqualification procedures; and
WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe had an illustrious professional career
after the Olympics, during which he played baseball for the New
York Giants, the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Braves, football
for the Canton Bulldogs and basketball for two years after his
retirement from professional football; and
WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe is considered one of football's founding
fathers as a result of his career as a professional football
player with the Canton Bulldogs, one of the four teams that made
up the American Professional Football Association, which later
became the National Football League; and
WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe, while coaching and playing for the
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